Healthy Store Bought Bread

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Healthy Store Bought Bread

When you are trying to eat clean, it can be hard to find a healthy store bought bread.  But, the right store bought bread can be really healthy (especially if it is toasted and slathered with cavity fighting butter!).

My kids love to eat buttered toast for a snack!  In fact, they love it so much, that they eat it daily if it is available.  I used to buy whatever cheap whole wheat bread I could find, but I began to realize that those breads weren’t healthy at all.  And, if my kids were going to eat it all the time, I wanted to find a bread that would add to their health instead of taking away from it.

The Problem with Most Store Bought Bread

Most Store bought bread contains additives that are really dangerous.  One of those additives is called potassium bromate.  This additive is often added to the flour that the bread is made from.

Potassium bromate competes for the same thyroid receptors as iodine.  This prevents the body from getting the iodine it needs and can lead to low thyroid or hypothyroidism.  Bromate consumption is also linked to cancer of the kidneys, thyroid and other organs.  You can read more about the health consequences of bromate here and here.

Store bought breads often contain other bad ingredients like genetically modified soy, and high fructose corn syrup.  Also, there are chemical preservatives and coloring in many breads.

For me personally though, the potassium bromate is bad enough to keep me from wanting to buy much of the bread in the grocery store.  Because of my past history of chronic fatigue, I have studied thyroid hormones and iodine for a long time.

Both Iodine and thyroid hormones are crucial to so many functions in the body.  Low thyroid can lead to conditions like chronic fatigue, inability to lose weight, hair loss, high cholesterol, irregular uterine bleeding, depression, irritability, and constipation.

Many people have problems with their thyroid and don’t even know it.  Testing is not always accurate, and some people struggle with health problems for many years before they realize their thyroid had something to do with it all along.

I want to help my family to avoid thyroid problems and other hormonal problems, so I try to avoid potassium bromate.  This chemical is already banned in many countries, but not in the United States.  So, I have sought out breads that don’t contain this ingredient.

Of course I could make my own bread.  But, I am not ready to do that yet-so I am grateful to have found some really healthy brands of bread in the grocery store.

Healthy Bread Brands

Food for Life Bread

We usually buy this bread at Food Lion, but I think it is getting more widely available and is in many grocery stores now.  It is in the frozen section.  (I put links in the post for Amazon so that you can check it out there, but it is a much better price in the grocery store.)

 

We have tried quite a few of the Food for Life breads.  There are a few we didn’t like at all.  The low sodium bread is too bland, and my girl’s didn’t really enjoy the flax bread that much.  But, there are two varieties that we do enjoy eating:

1. Ezekiel 4:9, Sesame Sprouted Grain Bread-This bread is the best to me of all the “regular” breads that Food for Life makes.  My kids will eat it if I put grass fed butter on it and a little cinnamon and sugar.  I don’t mind them having a little sugar, especially if they have a lot of healthy butter to go with it.
2. Cinnamon Raisin Sprouted Whole Grain Bread-This is my kids favorite.  It is already lightly sweetened, so we just slather it in butter.  🙂

 

Food for Life’s breads are different than “regular” bread because they are made from sprouted grains and sprouted beans.  The texture is not soft-my daughter describes it as very rough.  They are filling and seedy.  For these reasons, we eat this bread as toast with butter and not as regular bread.

Dave’s Killer Bread

This bread is closer to “regular” bread than the food for life bread.  The ingredients are still stellar.  I contacted Dave’s Killer Bread and asked them if potassium bromate was used in their bread.  Some flours are treated with potassium bromate and I wanted to verify that Dave’s Killer Bread was not one of them.They confirmed that there was no bromides/bromine-or dough conditioners in Dave’s Killer Bread.  I also asked them about the canola oil in their bread.

Canola oil is not a healthy oil.  However, the canola oil in Dave’s bread is much better than most canola oil.  Dave’s assured me that their canola oil is expeller-pressed, Non GMO, organic, and contains no trans fats.  Although I still don’t use any canola oil for my family, I would let them eat Dave’s bread for 2 reasons:  their canola oil is better than most canola oils, and the amount would be very small in a couple of slices of bread.

Even better, Dave’s seediest breads don’t contain any canola oil.

Some of the varieties of Dave’s Bread that we have tried include:

1. The Good Seed Bread-my girl’s will eat this one absolutely plain-that means they really like it.  🙂  They also enjoy this as toast or on grilled cheeze sandwiches.
2. 21 Whole Grains and Seeds-This one is also very good!
3. Cinnamon Raisin Remix Bagels-These bagels are yummy.  They are really big-so sometimes I would tell my girl’s to have a half of one for a snack.  That would help with the carb level and it would help our budget-the bagels are a little pricier than the bread.  (They were allowed to have something else for a snack if they wanted.)

 

I am so glad that I found Food for Life’s bread and Dave’s Killer Bread.  Now we can have really healthy bread, and I don’t worry that we might be hurting our health with the bread that I buy!

Disclaimer: This post is not medical advice.  I am not a doctor or medical professional.  I share only from my own experiences and research.  Consult your own practitioner before making changes in your diet or supplements.

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